Surely that's a contractual obligation? You made a purchase with the ship as a bonus as part of said offer?
Am the first to say it wasn't exactly customer-service friendly. But nothing actually illegal in terms of contractual obligation because there was no completed transaction to the contracted terms.
Most Western jurisdictions rely on the basic elements of offer, terms of the offer, and remuneration (e.g. paid for what was offered). Key gap here is remuneration. I was told of offer X, with terms ABC, later changed to DEF. Due to thinking there was no end date of the offer (original terms), I did not purchase and held off - until too late when the terms changed to DEF (must buy before xx.yy date).
Companies are completely free to change promos and offer terms, anytime, any reason, so long as buyers who already accepted and closed the transaction with remuneration paid based on offer terms at point of purchase is honored.
This is why this sad customer service debacle did not turn into a greater stink - because take a look at the scenario:
1- initial promo offer terms and offered item -> previously own horizons + pre-order or purchase Engineers at anytime = ability to buy Cobra Mk IV
Customers who paid based on these terms received the promised offer, so no matter what later change to offer terms, there is no breach of contract - remuneration was paid and customers received exactly what was offered
2- New promo offer terms, changed from above to -> previously own horizons + pre-order or purchase Engineers before xx.yy date = ability to buy Cobra Mk IV
At the instant original offer terms were changed to this new one, all prior customers who'd already paid still qualified for the offered reward (Cobra Mk IV) because whether old terms or new terms, the change was done within the xx.yy period (e.g. the change was done before the end of that xx.yy date period). Hence there's no breach because the offer which remuneration was paid for still was provided (the Cobra Mk IV)
The gap - JohnF, me, and whatever number of others that -saw- the original promo and thought we had more time than we had, and to be fair - did not check back on that promo page and post to see the new change of terms, lost out on the opportunity because we let the new date xx.yy pass by (due to not knowing it had been changed).
But since we did not actually complete the transaction by providing remuneration, there is no breach of contract, there isn't even a contract per se - it's just a terms of offer which can be changed at any time for any reason. So I'm back to basically calling this more fairly as 'bad customer service move', but not complaining about actual legal wrong doing.
The public relations aspect is more simple - is it fair or reasonable to penalize players who in good faith viewed the initial promo post, including FAQ that explicitly outlined use case where purchase of Engineers could be done -at any time- as long as previously owned Horizons to qualify for the Cobra Mk IV, but missed viewing the new terms?
/shrug - it can honestly be argued either way. as in many other similar scenarios, bottom line is people vote with the dollars. For my part, I still like and play ED, but I've cut off all 'support payments' - e.g. previously I felt good about buying paint jobs, packs, etc as way of supporting FD as well as get some token of my support in non-game impact but cosmetic items. Now I never buy a single store item, never pre-order to give early funds, etc.
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